If you were one of the amazing 100+ people who read Snow White and the Wicked Queen: Chapter 1 before it was released on April 27th, or one of the over 300 people who downloaded and read it in the 2 weeks following (my mind is still blown!) then you already know that Chapter 2 is coming.
Or, if you love to read the reviews - and you know I do - then you will know overwhelmingly that the feedback kept saying, “Where is Chapter 2?!”
Well, just for you, here’s a sneak peek!
*Disclaimer* This is a work in progress… so it might have flaws. It might be a bit of a mess, or it might be pure, unadulterated genius… one never knows when one is writing one’s books…
Based on your feedback, the final product may look very, very different … or exactly the same, and that, my dear reader, is exactly the point. I want to know what you think. Be honest, let me know what works, what doesn’t work, what you like and don’t like, because that is how I will get better and end up offering you a much better final product.
Enough! Enjoy…
Snow White and the Vicious Curse: Chapter 2
One
"No, no, no!" The Queen snapped, glaring at the seamstress that cowered at her feet. "They are disgusting. You simply have to start over.” Then, with one graceful hand, she tucked her fingers into the neckline of the silk gown and tore it from her breasts, shredding the tapestry of beading and fine embroidery that embellished the bodice. The seamstress gasped and fought back tears as the Queen destroyed weeks’ worth of work and kicked the dress aside.
Reeling on her husband, King Osgar, and his valet, Tripp, who sat off to one side, the Queen was such a vision they scarcely heard her as she stomped towards them. Cheeks flushed, breasts heaving, nostrils flared, the Queen was an avenging angel, a wrathful goddess so beautiful one might forget how very dangerous she could be.
“I thought that one was lovely, darling," the king mused, his loins stirring despite the murderous glint in her eye.
"It was filth," the Queen snarled, stalking across the width of the chamber to stand directly before the king. “You dare present me with this ruin of a seamstress?" The Queen's arm flew out, her finger pointing accusingly at the trembling woman struggling to pick the scattered beads from the rugs. "She would see me humiliated. I wouldn't milk a cow in that gown." Tripp snorted. Hot black eyes turned on the valet, and he gasped for breath under the fury in her gaze.
“A joke at my expense, worm?’ the Queen hissed, her voice acid in the air.
The valet clawed at his rapidly closing throat. “The thought of such beauty, such grace, such elegance doing menial work -” Tripp rasped to silence, his face red, eyes popping before his words mollified the Queen, and she shrugged, disinterested in his distress and cut her gaze away. "I want her whipped before she's thrown out of the castle."
The Queen spun on one delicately arched foot and stalked from the room, leaving the valet choking in gasping breaths, staring in confusion at her gracefully retreating back.
King Osgar stood slowly and made to follow his wife from the room. At the doorway, he paused, turning to his valet and trembling seamstress. "Pay her twice what she is owed, but keep her out of the Queen's sight for at least a fortnight."
The valet nodded, struggling to close his mouth. The king smiled apologetically at the seamstress, who appeared both grateful and shaken before he headed out the room.
King Osgar found his wife in her dressing room, her maid struggling to fasten the ice-blue silk gown as the Queen stalked angrily back and forth.
"Simply ghastly," she snarled, her pretty lip curling unpleasantly as she spun on her heel. "Not fit for a peasant. I am Queen, for fuck sake, not some milkmaid. My gowns should be resplendent, Exquisite, divine –"
As the Queen twisted again for another pace, the maid’s fingers caught in the golden fall of hair and tugged sharply on her mistress's scalp. The Queen stopped pacing, her hand flying to her temple, her eyes flashing, as she stared at the few strands of golden hair snagged in the maid’s horrified fist.
Like a bolt of lightning, the Queen lashed out, her open palm flying against the maid’s cheek with such ferocity, the girl's head snapped to the side.
"Here now!” King Osgar called out, shutting the door behind him. The Queen turned on him, her beautiful face horrifying in her rage. Pulling up short, King Osgar halted his approach. His eyes slid from his furious wife to the maid. He watched her slowly straighten, her cheek flaming pink, eyes brimming with tears as she reached out and closed the last clasp on her mistress's dress before curtsying deeply and turning away.
Frowning, the king turned back to his bride. "Your temper, my queen," he admonished softly. "Must you be so hard on the servants?"
The Queen’s flashing eyes filled with fat tears as she eased her face into one of heartbreaking sorrow. "I mean no harm. It's just that I want to look perfect for you, my king."
The high flush in her cheeks faded as she approached him. "Don't you want me to look beautiful?” she asked, her voice satin and smoke.
The king swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry. "You always look beautiful, my dove."
The Queen stepped closer, the gold in her eyes fading to ash and shadows. "And don't you believe I should be surrounded with beautiful things?"
The king's vision narrowed until all he could see was his queen. "Of course, darling. You deserve to be drowned in beauty." His voice was thick, words plodding.
The Queen blinked, her gaze flashing out the window. "I have been Queen for more than five years. I am lonely. I miss my homelands. Your peasants send fewer gifts than they did when I first arrived. The fresh flowers do not come so often.” Her lower lip quivered, then her eyes flashed again. “I'm forced to dress in rags, and I’m surrounded by incompetence." The Queen sighed, slipping disgusted fingers across the creamy silk gown that shone like stars in the firelight, gesturing vaguely at the maid who was crouched at the hearth stroking the fire. "It is as if you do not want me to be happy." The Queen turned hot black eyes on her king, and his knees trembled.
"Nothing could be farther from the truth, my light." He took a wooden step forward, then another. "My beauty." Another. "My world."
The Queen's eyes darkened to the bottomless black of a moonless night, and the king’s knees buckled. Kneeling at her feet, Osgar stared up at her, an animated shell. Oh, how he bored her.
"What do you want, my Queen?" His voice was little more than a moan between dry lips. "Let me please you. Let me serve you."
The Queen smiled, amused for the first time in days. "What would you give me, my king?” she asked, her voice a song of mercury and dark joy.
"Anything," he moaned.
"Anything?" she asked.
"Anything," he repeated, shuffling closer on his knees.
The Queen smiled. Without moving her eyes from her kneeling husband, the Queen snapped her fingers at the maid. "Fetch the king’s valet. Have him bring a quill and parchment."
* * *
Tripp, the king’s valet, rubbed the ache from his wrist when he finally set the quill aside. The Queen's list of demands filled several pages, even in his neat hand. He tried not to look at his king, so unnerved was he by the man’s vacant expression, but anytime he cut his eyes to the Queen, the valet lost track of his task. His eyes wanted to devour her, to feast on her beauty like a starving man.
Hatred grew in his heart that he could not understand. Hatred and jealousy of his king. A man he had known since they were both children, whom he had sworn to protect with his life.
But this woman.
This goddess of a woman stole his will to think and terrified him in equal measure. When she turned her eyes his way, the valet would have gladly gutted his king for another glance, a kiss. Instead, his dreams of running his hands over that golden skin tormented him, and he had taken to overdrinking, drowning his traitorous thoughts in strong ale and loose women. Women with blond hair. Women he would fuck from behind, his eyes clamped shut, the Queen’s mocking face bouncing behind his eyelids.
“I need a drink,” Tripp groaned to himself, his mouth aching for his first swallow of ale.
At last, Tripp turned to his king, and at that moment, he saw his old friend, his ally, his liege. He would die for him, this staring shadow of the man he once knew. In a breath, Tripp knew they were both lost, and the bewitching woman would be the death of them all.
Lowering his voice so the Queen couldn't overhear, the valet asked, "All of it, sire?"
King Osgar turned vacant eyes on his lifelong friend. "Anything she asks for. Everything she wants," he repeated for what must have been the thousandth time.
Fighting to ignore the temptation of the Queen swaying softly in the afternoon light that poured like rain through the window, Tripp forced his eyes to the stacks of pages before him.
"The kingdom will suffer, Osgar," he whispered, praying the Queen was still out of earshot. "If you give her everything she wants, the very kingdom will have to go without."
The king’s hollow eyes struck a chord of ice in the valet’s chest.
"Anything."
Swallowing over the lump of rising dread, Tripp nodded, Gathering the pages and made to leave. He had almost crossed the threshold into the hall when a thought struck him.
“Your highness, I had the pleasure of seeing the wee princess earlier. Such a bright and sweet little child. I daresay she is already as beautiful as her mother."
Had he not left the room that instant, before the words could sink in for the Queen, Tripp might have watched the waves of sick fear then fury that contorted her angelic features. Had he not been forcing his gaze to the pattern in the carpet, Tripp may have watched the Queen's cheeks flush red then drain of even her ethereal golden glow.
Two
Black cloak billowing around her, bare feet slapping against the cold stone, the Queen stormed down the long dim corridor and, with a scant glance around, thrust back the hunting tapestry to reveal the small curved door behind. The Queen rushed down the dark, tightly spiraled staircase, fingertips tracing the familiar curve in the stone until she reached the threshold of her room, and the torches around the walls flared to blinding.
Before the Queen stepped into the room, heart racing eyes wild with panic, one slender finger caught in the knot at her throat, untying the ribbon and letting the black cloak fall from her naked skin. She stopped before the mirror’s dark surface, watching the shadows twist and writhe, staring hard into the mirror’s reflection. The torches around her flickered and flared in the cool air.
“She can’t be. She simply cannot be,” the Queen muttered to her smirking reflection as her eyes rolled over her flawless skin, the full, high curves of her breasts, the fresh pink nipples that tightened in the chill and thrust towards the mirror in an invitation.
She pushed the waves of her shimmering hair over one shoulder and turned her neck to admire the long lines of her legs, the swell of her hips, the lush curve of her ass.
“It just can not be. Look. Look at yourself, Callista - Queen Calista. Look. Still beautiful. Still powerful. It can’t be -” Swallowing down her panic, the Queen bit deeply into the pillow of her lower lip to keep it from trembling.
Her guts roiled with black emotions she had not felt in years. Pain, bright and fresh, bloomed along the edges of long-forgotten wounds, and the Queen doubled over, hands fisted in her ribs against the ache. Twin tears blinked from her eyes, fell like raindrops, and splattered against the black stone floor. The Queen watched them and summoned her strength.
“Pull yourself together. You are Queen now. This is not happening again. She cannot be -” Straightening slowly, the Queen stared at her reflection, the glimmer of tears in her eyes, the shoulders shuddering with threatening sobs.
Her reflection raised its left hand, its mouth still twisted in dark joy at the Queen’s pain. The Queen’s right hand shadowed it. Then it flew viciously against the Queen’s cheek, shocking her with the sting that knocked her head to the side. Something healing uncurled in the physical pain, smothering the emotional pain, focusing it, bringing the Queen out of the shadows of her past and back to this moment.
Her breath clouded in the sudden chill, her heart icing over the old wounds once again, as she straightened, smoothed the tears from her cheeks, and ran her fingers through the tumble of gold hair that hung down her back.
“Mirror, mirror,” her voice, now strong and clear, shimmered in the air between her flesh and her reflection. “On the wall, who in the realm is fairest of all?”
The reflection in the mirror slid its slender hands over the delicious curves the Queen had just been admiring, and the Queen trembled at the sensation. Her lips parted, and her head lolled to one side, watching the devilish grin on her reflection widen as its hands slid higher, cupping her breasts and toying with her nipples.
The Queen gasped when the reflection’s fingers clamped down and squeezed the tight buds firmly. Her head came up, and her mouth opened, meaning to object, but the sensation stopped just short of pain and ignited an urgent tug in her womb.
The reflection’s hands slid over the silky curve of her belly, then tugged on the golden curls between her legs. The Queen moaned, leaning back to brace herself against the stone table, lifting one leg to open herself to deeper caresses. The reflection laughed at her wanton pose and, stroking her trembling mound, teased another series of moans from the Queen.
Following its lead, the Queen’s fingers slid slowly between her legs, parting her secret lips and dipping into the well that hid there. Again, the Queen moaned, bucking her hips. The fingers slid along her slit again, teasing and taunting, stoking the fire that burned between her legs until the Queen’s breath rushed out in urgent pants.
Her hips snapped against the cold hard stone, and the fingers teased on, dipping deeper and deeper, sliding over the wet satin skin, then swirling around the tight bud of intense pleasure at the apex of her thighs. When she could stand it no longer, the fingers slid lower again dipping into the hot wet hole at her core, shallowly at first but deeper and deeper as the Queen growled her satisfaction. A second finger slid next to the first and spread the deep aching space open as the Queen gasped and worked her hips against the thrusting fingers.
From the edges of her mounting pleasure, the Queen heard a voice break through her echoing moans. The reflection, still filling itself and the Queen with hard thrusting fingers, spoke:
“You, my Queen, have a beauty quite rare, but tiny Snow White is growing equally fair.”
The vain queen froze, writhing on her fingers as the words stole the orgasm from her quivering thighs. She stared into the half-smirk of her reflection, and her whisper whipped around the small room.
“What did you say?”
The reflection tilted its head and waited, and the Queen gnashed her teeth - it would, of course, respond only to rhyme, so she asked again, naked and trembling before the ebony twists of the frame and the beautiful reflection with the cruel glint in its eye.
“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who in the realm is fairest of all?” Her eyelid twitched, and she held her breath, fingers still wet from the dew of her excitement as the dark voice replied, slowly, viciously, “You, my Queen, have a beauty quite rare, but tiny Snow White is growing equally fair.”
Nails cutting into her palms, the Queen screamed her fury at the mirror. “A child? A bloody, snot-nosed babe is as beautiful as I am?” The anger twisted dark and brutal in her chest as she stomped her bare feet on the stone floor, eyes rolling in their sockets, breath heaving beneath her perfect breasts.
She wanted to scream till her throat bled. She wanted to smash the mirror into a thousand icy shards. She wanted to burn the smug smile off the reflection that stood motionless and watched her tantrum, mocking her with her reflected perfection.
Instead, the Queen stalked, still naked, skin glinting with icy sweat in the torchlight, across the stone room to her shelves of dark ingredients. Between the bottles of baby mice, vials of virgin’s blood, and stardust, she snatched a dagger from its sheath. She drew its razor-sharp blade across her palm with a single decisive swipe. A breath hissed through her teeth as the pain flashed from the wound to the still hard tips of her breasts. She closed her fingers over the wound and extended her arm to drip blood onto the black stone altar.
“Send me the Huntsman,” she whispered as the torchlight flared to blinding before sizzling back to flickers.
**
Snow White and the Vicious Curse: Chapter 2 launches on June 29th, 2021. To never miss and update, click here to join our ARC and Launch Team.
Do you have feedback? I would love to hear from you! Email me at info@reginagrimmauthor.com
With Love,
Regina Grimm is the author of erotic fairytales, written for the uninhibited readers 18+. Check out her books - Snow White and the Wicked Curse: Chapter 1 andSnow White and the Vicious Curse: Chapter 2. Snow White and the Seven Thieves: Chapter 3 coming soon!